COVID-19: the United States, India, Brazil among the world’s worst outbreaks

COVID-19 is continuing to spread globally. As of June 7, there have been more than 172 million confirmed cases and more than 3.7 million deaths. The crisis seems far from over, as countries around the world are struggling with vaccine rollout and inequality in vaccination remains.

It has been more than a year since the outbreak of coronavirus infection. Though vaccine rollout shows positive results in some countries, the danger is still out there underpinned by the evolving nature of the pandemic and the emergence of new variants.

Last week, at the World Health Assembly that gathered all WHO member states in Geneva both virtually and physically, WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus called on all countries to support the initiative of vaccinating at least 10 percent of the global population by the end of September and at least 30 percent by the end of the year.

He said that the only way out of this situation will be through “tailored and consistent public health measures coupled with equitable vaccination.”

“One day – hopefully soon – the pandemic will be behind us, but the psychological scars will remain for those who have lost loved ones, health workers who have been stretched beyond breaking point, and the millions of people of all ages confronted with months of loneliness and isolation,” he said then.

As of today, more than 2 billion doses have been administered worldwide. According to the data provided by the Our World in Data website of the University of Oxford, Israel is leading in terms of the proportion of the population immunized against the virus.

Fifty-nine percent of Israel’s population was fully vaccinated and 63 percent has received at least one dose of vaccine.
Next goes the United Kingdom that vaccinated 40 percent of the population followed by Bahrain - 47.91 percent.

The United States, Brazil, and India are now among the world’s worst outbreaks.

The United States

There have been 33,178,017 coronavirus cases in the United States, the highest worldwide. The virus killed 594,381 people.

“About 80 percent of U.S. states & territories are seeing declining rates of COVID-19 cases. The 7-day average of daily new cases is 15,623, a 30.8 percent decrease from the previous week,” wrote the Center for Disease Control and Prevention on Twitter.

In the country of 328 million, 138,969,323 have been fully vaccinated and 170,833,221 to at least one dose.

The United States has recently waived intellectual property rights for COVID-19 vaccines in an effort to expand vaccine manufacturing and distribution.

“We need more companies producing life-saving doses of proven vaccines that are shared equitably. We have already shared more than 4 million doses of vaccine with Canada and Mexico, and last month, I announced that, by the end of June, the United States will share 80 million doses of our vaccine supply with the world,” said Joe Biden in a June 3 statement published on White House website.

The United States is part of the COVAX initiative aimed at ensuring fair and equitable access to vaccines for countries worldwide and nearly 19 million doses will be shared as part of this initiative.

Brazil

Brazil, which had its situation drastically worsening in March, registered 39,637 new cases and 873 deaths from coronavirus over the past day. This brings the total number of cases in the country to nearly 16.8 million and nearly 470,000 deaths.

Brazil has also been struggling with vaccine rollout due to an insufficient number of doses. Only six percent of the population was fully vaccinated.

In May, together with India, Brazil accounted for more than half of the global new COVID-19 cases.

India

India has been in the news for the past months, as the situation was near the collapse after a spike in cases and the inability of the country’s healthcare system to handle the load.

But the recent data published by the Indian government shows the cases were down to 100,636 and 2,427 deaths in the past 24 hours.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi is expected to address the country on Monday regarding the situation with coronavirus infection.

As the number of cases goes down, India’s New Delhi and Mumbai announce the easing of coronavirus restrictions. Starting June 7, the government allows markets and shopping malls in New Delhi to reopen and the metro to resume its operation at 50 percent capacity.

Vaccination has also been slow in India due to an insufficient number of doses. Only 13 percent of the population received at least one dose and only three were fully vaccinated.

Kazakhstan

The epidemiological situation in Kazakhstan has improved, said Kazakh Minister of Healthcare Alexey Tsoy at the government meeting last week.

"Overall, the country continues to witness a reduction in the incidence of coronavirus infection. The number of cases over the last week decreased from 15,000 to 12,000 cases or by 21 percent compared to last week. Overall, over the past month the incidence decreased by 1.6 times," he said.

According to daily monitoring of beds occupancy, the occupancy rate of infectious disease beds in the country was 28 percent and 24 percent in intensive care.

Vaccination of the population also continues. Nearly 3.2 million doses of vaccine have been administered. More than 2.2 million have received the first component, and more than one million got the two doses.

"As of today, there are enough doses of vaccine in vaccination sites - about 330,000 of the first component and 811,000 of the second one. Additionally, around 2 million doses of the COVID-19 vaccine are expected to be delivered in June," he said.

Though the epidemiological situation with coronavirus infection in the country is stabilizing, the minister urged local executive bodies to increase the rate of vaccination and strengthen information and awareness efforts among the population.